


Same Song, Alternate 'Verses

by Gray Cardinal (Gray_Cardinal)



Series: Random Plot Twists (Extended Version) [4]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Valdemar Series - Mercedes Lackey
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-11
Updated: 2011-08-11
Packaged: 2017-11-30 00:49:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/693458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gray_Cardinal/pseuds/Gray%20Cardinal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Suppose three things were diff’rent: the world beneath her feet,</i><br/>The friends who rode beside her, and the foes she must defeat?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Same Song, Alternate 'Verses

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Threes](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/17624) by Mercedes Lackey. 



> This story occurs between seasons Five and Six of BtVS, and some time before Tarma and Kethry joined Idra’s Sunhawks.

_Suppose three things were diff’rent: the world beneath her feet,  
The friends who rode beside her, and the foes she must defeat?_

Dust rose as mage and warrior rode along the track. Suddenly, a hole appeared in the sky – and a girl fell out of it.  
  
Kethry spoke and gestured. The girl’s plunge slowed, so she landed with only a soft _thunk_. “That’s odd,” the sorceress said, hand on her sword-hilt.  
  
“Odd?”  
  
“Need isn’t making sense. Apparently our visitor doesn’t need our help – but Need thinks we need hers.”  
  
The new arrival groaned, talking incomprehensibly. Kethry cast a translation spell. “—being dead is like? Shouldn’t there be, like, angels? And a buffet?”  
  
Tarma blinked. “You don’t look dead.”  
  
“Looks aren’t everything – I’ve met seriously hot vampires. But if I’m alive, where am I? Dungeons-and-Dragons-land?”  
  
“Southern Rethwellan,” Tarma replied. “Few dungeons, fewer cold-drakes. There is, however, an inn back thataway.”  
  
“That works. I’m Buffy,” the girl added.  
  
[ _One question,_ ] Warrl, Tarma’s wolf-like mindmate, said as the party reversed course.  [ _What’s a vampire?_ ]  

 

_These three things remember well when evil walks the night:  
The Watcher’s eye, the mage’s spell, the Slayer’s will to fight._

By summer’s end, Tarma and Kethry had been crash-tutored in Slayer-lore, Buffy had (somewhat) adjusted to low-tech civilization, and they had – barely – destroyed the Hellmouth a rogue Sunpriest had attempted to open in Karse.  
  
“What was he _thinking_?” Buffy asked.  
  
Tarma laughed. “That sort doesn’t, mostly.”  
  
Kethry coughed. “Where now?”  
  
“Need isn’t pestering?”  
  
“Not—” Kethry stopped, pointing. Buffy was going fuzzy around the edges. In moments, she’d vanished entirely.  
  
“Damn. That girl was actually useful.”  
  
[ _And we never did meet any vampires,_ ] observed Warrl.

 

_Three things then are constant: someone’s bound to write a song,_  
 _The Slayer’s side will triumph, and the bard will get things wrong!_

**Author's Note:**

> Mercedes Lackey's original lyrics for "Threes" were originally written long before the edited book-length tales of Tarma's and Kethry's adventures were published. As a result, there's a running gag in the books involving Leslac, who wrote the "in-universe" incarnation of the song, severely botched the details, and went on to complicate Our Heroes' lives considerably by making them look like nonprofit Warriors For Good rather than working mercenaries.


End file.
